Vic opposition sweats on health deal briefing

The Victorian opposition will get an urgent mid-election campaign briefing from the state’s Health Department on the new federal funding arrangements for hospitals on Tuesday, as it weighs whether to walk away from the deal.

The opposition has signalled it might tear up the agreement penned earlier this year, in which the federal government clawed back 30 per cent of the state goods and services tax revenue in return for taking up 60 per cent of hospital funding,

Opposition health spokesman
David Davis
said the briefing would provide a “great deal of information".

Mr Davis said the briefing should not have been required, because the information should already be in the public domain.

He said continuing uncertainty about how capital works would be funded was a particular concern.

“Victorians will go to the polls without knowing how capital will be dealt with under the federal agreement," he said.

“There are still bureaucrats feverishly meeting to figure out how the capital arrangements will apply."

Health dominated the campaign trail on Monday with Premier
John Brumby
promising a $1.5 billion boost to health funding. Opposition Leader
Ted Baillieu
travelled to Ballan to announce a $70 million package of measures for regional health.

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The announcement continued Mr Baillieu’s low-key approach to the campaign so far, which has resulted in the government substantially out-gunning the opposition with the scale of its promises on everything from payroll tax to child protection.

Mr Baillieu has promised there would be “significant" announcements once the opposition had a clearer idea of the structure of the federal deal and assessed the pre-election budget update, which was due out later this week.

“This comes after 11 years of this government and there are significant problems in the health and hospital system," he said.

“This is really more about politics than patients. If these measures were as important as the government projects, why weren’t they done sooner?"